Friday, September 12, 2008

The middle of the night

I'm sure that most of you know by now that I am awake while the rest of the world sleeps. I figure I am going to bed early if I make it by 2 am. Everything is quiet and peaceful at that hour. The world around me is sleeping, however crickets are still chirping.

The other night I was standing out on the front porch while Leica had one last run at the grass. There are very few cars traveling at that hour, sometimes in the 4-5 minutes that we are outside, only one will pass my front door.

I always wonder what that one person might be doing. Have they left a party? Or a girlfriend (boyfriend)? Are they leaving work or going to work? Did they get a call from someone that needed them urgently?

But then, they are gone, and those fleeting thoughts give way to observations of the world around me.

A half block away is a traffic light. At 10 pm, it turns to flashing yellow (or red, depending on your aspect). The other night, it was so quiet that I heard the lights shifting on and off. As I concentrated on the sound, I also noticed that the Martinizing store's 'open' sign was also flashing on and off. Hmm ... someone forgot to shut that off ... unless ... they were still open at 2:30 am.

Living in the city, I rarely am exposed to silence at the level that I can hear a traffic light change. I've missed that. But, between 2 and 4 am, I come close. I like it. A lot.

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